Blyth Academy Newsletter

November 30, 2017

********************************************************

Presents CELEBRATION OF THE ARTS

ALADDIN- A Musical Spectacular

Tuesday December 5th

@ 5:45pm Where: College of the North Atlantic-Qatar-

Large Auditorium

Families are welcome to attend!

Announcements

● Blyth Academy Qatar has completed their annual evaluation from the Province of Alberta

and we are pleased to announce we have maintained our accredited status. We will have

the full report shortly and look forward to hearing about the improvements we have made

and how we can continue to improve the school going forward

● December 5, we will be holding a Winter Concert to celebrate the season and showcase

our amazing student talents

● December 6, we will be holding A Career Fair for students to learn about potential

careers they may be interested in pursuing in the future.

● Qatar National Day December 10. This day will be celebrated both inside and out of

Blyth Academy Qatar

● If your child is not returning semester 2 please let us know, we have a waiting list of

students waiting to attend our school

Class Notes compiled by Grade 11 ELA

Grade 3

The grade 3’s visited the Dhow Festival! Both Grade 3 classes attended the event where they

took a dhow ride, learned about traditional fishing methods and collected shells.

Grade 4

The grade 4’s visited the Dhow festival last week!

The grade fours were exposed to many cultural

experiences including going out on a Dhow, watching some of the men weave fishing nets, and

examining the falcons!

Grade 6

In the last week Grade 6’s have had some fun with street soccer, J.K. buddy reading, and a

fieldtrip to the Dow Festival! In class they are learning about local government and by laws, and

Bernoulli’s Principle.

Junior High

This week, in English class, grades 7, 8, and 9 have been working on presenting their portfolios

to the class.

In Science class, the grade 7 students are having a competition to see which team can build the

strongest tower and bridge using household items.

In Math class, the grades 7’s are shooting paper balls into the trash can and calculating the

percentage of their shot in a game called “trash hit ball”.

The grade 8’s are trying to figure out how big “Zoolander's” school needed to be in order for

people to fit into it.

The grade 9’s measured Mr.Nic using paper cups and guessed how many pennies were in a giant

pyramid.

CLUBS

The Blyth Academy soccer season is well underway with both the Middle School and Senior

High School teams competing this week. The middle school battled hard before falling to GEMS

Academy by the score of 3-2 while the Senior Boys triumphed against GEMS by the same 3-2

margin. We are looking forward to even more sports activities becoming a part of Blyth school

life going forward.

Con’t

STUDENT WORK SHOWCASE - HUDA SALEH

The Grade 11 Class just completed a poetry anthology assignment and Huda has been recognized

for her outstanding work.

The Blank Hour By: Huda Saleh

Familiar Watch as the words leave the page

Slowly move towards you

And whisper

‘You are not alone’

Digging inside your head

Finding things you've long forgotten

A half remembered memory

The words tugging at your heart

Provoking a good cry, a swift smile,

Or an abrupt feeling of sorrow

Doha 2 am It’s that hour again

She creeps up on me

Infecting my head with trivial images

Leaving her marks to stay for hours

Not a single thing goes unthought of

I weep of tiredness but she insists

She keeps me awake with feelings I can't shake

My thoughts pass through the night like trains

The rapid ticking of the clock,

constantly reminding me of what I cannot obtain

As I'm on the verge of slipping away,

She pulls me back in again

Like a predator catching its prey

Melancholy Battle How are you leaving us,

And taking up with the enemy?

Implementing an act so treasonous

We’re sick of your insensibility

I’m sure we’re taller in another dimension

Hoping for life somewhere unsound

You say we’re small and not worth the mention

There is no point to stick around

But we’re tired of moving

Looking for something profound

Our bodies are aching

Hoping to go beyond the bound

Chocolate Im what you crave

Sweet and addicting

The matriarch of beauty

A gift given to your loved one

You grab me by the hand at your darkest times

I'm who gives you a hug when you need it

The one that dries your tears

I’ll be there for you when no one else is

Make you forget life’s stress

Worship me in your harshest days

When you recognize that I’m no good

I’ll already have you hooked

You can never escape my grip

You the bully

You broke my nose and my heart

I feel more worthless than a dime

Your words pierce through my heart every time

Keeping my head held up high, i try

But you seem to always make me cry

My head is just a mere egg in your hands

Played with to amuse your fans

Their eyes bore into my soul

Ripping it out through the dead heart in my chest

Is this just a contest?

Your comments and actions damaged my brain

Gradually fading away like a raspberry stain

You made me want to scream

You shattered my vigorous dream

Can’t you comprehend?

All I wanted was a friend

Is there no end?

Online Heroes

They are the saviours of the internet

The perfect individuals

Taking time out of their day to better others

you’ve been living unknowingly

without their insight

You must follow as they say

Because they know it all

You should be thanking them

Using their hours to spur you into action

They’re not harsh

You’re just sensitive

“You are fat” they say

What a valuable comment

The site of encouragement

The remark that makes all the difference

Do not look at my grades and weep Who am i?

Am I just a number on a computer screen?

Three point two nine

Is that how I'm seen?

Im rejected by society because I'm “incompetent”

Im taught that i will never amount to anything with low grades

Overworking everyday to reach perfection

Trying my hardest to live up to these charades

Many sleepless nights go unnoticed,

because if you are not overachieving then you are not working

Comparing yourself to the exceptionals

Fearful of your work being unrewarding

Life that way fills you with stress and misery

Grades do not define my intellect

Talent, sharpness or cleverness

The numbers have no effect

Building Student Resiliency – Don’t Be Afraid to Let Kids Fail

Written by International Teacher B. Han

As parents and educators, there is nothing more rewarding

then seeing our kids succeed and achieving their full potential.

As influential figures on their road to success, we do whatever

we can to guide them along the way. It makes us feel good to

put them out of harm’s way and rush ahead to remove any

bumps along their path.

But is this doing more harm than good?

On one hand, it is common sense for parents and teachers to

provide kids with every opportunity to succeed: moms and

dads checking backpacks every night so kids don’t forget to

pack their textbook, teachers checking student agendas every

day to see if homework is written down, scenes like these are

all too common. But are we really setting kids up for success

when we are so worried about raising happy children with good

grades than competent and independent young adults?

In her recent book, The Gift of Failure, author and middle

school teacher Jessica Lahey argues that “parents must learn to

allow their children to experience the disappointment and

frustration that occur from life’s inevitable problems so that

they can grow up to be successful, resilient, and self-reliant

adults.”

Failure is almost an absolutely certainty in everybody’s life. At

some point in our lives we will fail to do or accomplish

something. Be it a math test, a sports team tryout, an attempt

at a new recipe, or a job interview, we will all fail at some point

in our lives. It is what we learn from these failures and how we

deal with these disappointments that determine how we can

deal with similar problems again in the future.

If we protect and cuddle our kids too much, we have a

tendency to produce needy, anxious, and fragile human beings.

Modern parenting has reached an unprecedented level of

overprotectiveness: parents who rush to school at the whim of

a phone call to deliver forgotten assignments, who challenge

teachers on report card disappointments, mastermind

children’s friendships, and interfere decisions and calls on the

playing field.

Lahey explains that even though these parents see themselves

as being highly responsive to their children’s well- being, they

aren’t giving them the chance to experience failure—or the

opportunity to learn to solve their own problems. Over-

parenting, over-teaching, and over-coaching have the potential

to ruin a child’s confidence and undermine their resiliency.

Of course this does not suggest that we should just throw our

kids to the wolves and let them fend for themselves. We just all

need to learn to step back a bit and embrace our children’s

failures instead of recuing them in the face of imminent

failures. Kids can do a lot more than we think; we just have to

let them own it.

HAVE A GOOD WEEKEND!